The Barbican Announces Jazz at Lincoln Center Residency: United in Swing 2010

The Barbican is proud to announce the details of its first International Residency Series. The partnership with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis along with a stellar group of JALC musicians offers audiences at the Barbican and in East London the opportunity to experience some of the best big band music in the world, played by a selection of Americas finest jazz musicians. This major concert series is augmented by a programme of Creative Learning in London schools and at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, organised by the Barbican/Guildhall School Creative Learning Division in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center. This includes workshops, masterclasses, professional development and a keynote address by Wynton Marsalis. There will also be performances in a variety of East London partner venues including a swing dance evening at Stoke Newington Town Hall, jam sessions at the Vortex in Dalston, and a special family concert at Hackney Empire.

The three main Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra concerts will tell the story the story of the American jazz orchestra, celebrating 80 years of great big band music, from Jelly Roll Morton to the present day, curated by Wynton Marsalis.

Thursday 17 June 7.30pm
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis: Swinging Beginnings
Barbican Hall
Tickets £20/25/35
Produced by the Barbican and Jazz at Lincoln Center

A roaring celebration of the 1930s and 1940s, the years when the big bands were king, and their bandleaders were beginning to acquire the status of pop stars. Behind the most successful bands was the genius of the great arrangers and composers. This concert will feature some of the immortal works by Don Redman, Jelly Roll Morton, Fletcher Henderson and Eddie Durham – as well as by the doyen of bandleaders and composer/arrangers, Duke Ellington.

Friday 18 June 7.30pm
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis: Bebop and Beyond
Barbican Hall
Tickets £20/25/35
Produced by the Barbican and Jazz at Lincoln Center

Taking the history of the big band forward, this concert explores the startling music of the mid-1940s to 1960s, when arrangers began to incorporate the revolutionary musical discoveries of bebop and cool jazz into writing for large ensembles. This concert ranges across Neil Hefti’s music for Count Basie’s second great band, the astonishing bebop charts of Dizzy Gillespie and the cooler sounds of Gerry Mulligan. Also featured are charts by Charles Mingus, Ernie Wilkins, and later works by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.

Saturday 19 June
Big Band Britannia: Inspirations and Collaborations
Barbican Hall
Tickets £10/15/20/25
Produced by the Barbican in association with Serious

Eight decades of British big band music are celebrated by a specially-assembled big band led by renowned composer, arranger and trumpeter Guy Barker. This unique programme, linked to the JLCO International Residency, digs into a wonderful heritage of Anglo-American musical exchanges, from the days when Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter galvanised the big band of Jack Hylton and the BBC Dance Orchestra, tracing the story through the music of Ted Heath, to Kenny Baker, Tubby Hayes, Stan Tracey and Kenny Wheeler, through to the Brotherhood of Breath and up to the present day. The evening will also feature a special tribute to the pre-eminent figure in British big band jazz, the late Sir John Dankworth. A stellar range of special guests from successive generations will include Stan Tracey, Peter King, Bobby Wellins, Soweto Kinch and Jason Yarde.

Sunday 20 June 7.30pm
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis: Modern Jazz Masters
Hackney Empire, Mare Street, London E8 1EJ
Tickets £25/20/15
Produced by the Barbican and Jazz at Lincoln Center

Bringing the big band story bang up to date in the gorgeous and intimate setting of the Hackney Empire, Wynton Marsalis leads his stellar orchestra through the music that took jazz from the 1960s to present. Expect dazzling renditions of originals by Marsalis and the members of JLCO – as well as their arrangements of great compositions by Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Jackie McLean.

Sunday 20th June 3pm
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis: Jazz for Young People
Hackney Empire, Mare Street, London E8 1EJ
Tickets £10/£5 for children under 16
Produced by the Barbican and Jazz at Lincoln Center

A chance to celebrate the dance styles that inspired the rise of swing music in the 1930s in the beautiful surroundings of the newly-refurbished Stoke Newington Town Hall, an historic Grade II listed, Art Deco building with a traditional Canadian Maple sprung dance floor. A rare chance to experience the power and beauty of a great, transatlantic swing band.

Red-hot swing from a specially-assembled big band under the direction of trumpeter, bandleader and arranger Guy Barker which features brilliant musicians from both sides of the pond. A summer celebration of the dance roots of jazz with some of the most exciting, foot-tapping arrangements in the history of the music. Food and drink will be available for purchase.

Tickets from Barbican Box Office: 0845 120 7550 www.barbican.org.uk

United In Swing 2010: Jam sessions
During the residency week of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra there will be nightly after-hours jam sessions, involving the cream of British jazz talent and drawing on the musicians of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, at East London jazz venues including the Vortex Jazz Club, the Hackney Empire Review Bar and others. There will also be a number of Barbican freestage performances – see website www.barbican.org.uk for details.

United In Swing 2010: Creative Learning

The Barbican/Guildhall School Creative Learning Division in partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center will encompass work with young people, music students and professional musicians by JALC faculty working with UK music educators and jazz musicians. It will include the following projects:

Friday 18 June 10am
Jazz Leadership Day + keynote address by Wynton Marsalis
Barbican Theatre
Tickets £65
Produced by the Barbican, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Jazz at Lincoln Center

A day’s study and discussion in the Barbican Centre, where Paul Griffiths and JALC faculty will train up to 60 participants on band and section-leading and other aspects of professional development. The Leadership Day will include a lunchtime keynote address by Wynton Marsalis. This event is open to band leaders, teachers, students and other music leaders from across the UK and will be the first step towards the establishment of a Leadership Academy for jazz musicians at the Barbican and Guildhall School.

Saturday 19 June 10am – 1pm
‘Essentially Ellington UK’
Barbican Theatre
Produced by the Barbican and Jazz at Lincoln Center

The first UK expression of the hugely successful Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Programme which Jazz at Lincoln Center has been running for 15 years in the US. A number of UK youth big bands will work on classic original Ellington charts under the coaching and criticism of JALC faculty, culminating in a combined workshop in the Barbican Theatre.

Other educational activity includes:

Two concerts for young people 5-11 years old on 15 June with JALC faculty and UK jazz musicians, as part of the Department for Schools, Children & Families-funded series What’s That Sound. This will be preceded by a Teacher Training Day on 26 April. JALC faculty and UK jazz musicians will work with some 50 students drawn from 10 London boroughs under the artistic direction of music educator Paul Griffiths, culminating in a performance on 19 June at the Barbican. This work is the first step towards a long term goal of establishing an East London Creative Jazz Orchestra which will develop and continue to work with JALC in future residencies.
Work with 25 school students aged 10-14, drawn from the Hackney Training Orchestra, by Paul Griffiths and the group Blue Pepper culminating in a Barbican Freestage appearance.
Workshops by JLCO faculty members in Morpeth School and Guildhall School, on 17 and 18 June
An ‘all-comers’ big band event in the Barbican foyers on the afternoon of Saturday 19 June pm, time tbc, when players of different levels of ability can mix and try out some classic arrangements with Tomorrow’s Warriors.
Work with Guildhall School jazz students by JALC faculty under the guidance of Guildhall School Head of Jazz Martin Hathaway.

This partnership was made possible, in part, with funds from Arts Council England London.
The United in Swing 2010: Creative Learning projects were made possible, in part, with funds from the Department for Children, Schools and Families.